Europe's View On 9/11
One year after the biggest terrorist attack on U.S. soil, more than half (55%) of Europeans believe U.S. foreign policy is in part to blame for the September 11 attacks. But three in five (59%) believe U.S. conduct since the attacks aims to protect America from further terrorist attacks, whilst a quarter (26%) believe it is to enforce its will around the globe.
For the survey -- commissioned by The Chicago Council on Foreign Relations (CCFR) and the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) -- Europeans from six nations were asked to evaluate threats to their country's national security over the next 10 years -- international terrorism, Iraq developing weapons of mass destruction, and Islamic fundamentalism were high on the list. Large majorities of Europeans support the use of military force to combat terrorism, with three quarters ready to use troops to wipe out terrorist camps.
Europeans are critical of certain aspects of US foreign policy. Less than two in five (38%) view the Bush administration overall handling of foreign policy as "excellent" or "good", while more than half (56%) say it is "fair" or "poor". Europeans give the administration low marks for its handling of the Arab-Israeli conflict with just one if five (20%) rating it as "excellent" or "good", and the situation in Iraq gains a similar rating (21%).
In Europe, three in five people say the U.S. should only invade Iraq with UN approval and the support of its allies. When presented with various scenarios for a U.S. attack on Iraq, Europeans' support for their country's participation is most heavily influenced by the presence or absence of a UN mandate.
For the complete key findings, please visit www.worldviews.org
Technical details
MORI conducted telephone interviews (except in Poland, where the face-to-face method was used) with representative national samples of 1,000 men and women, 18 years of age or older, in each of six countries -- Great Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Poland. The fieldwork began on June 5 and completed July 6. The results based on the total sample, one can say with 95 percent confidence that the error attributable to sampling and other random effects is less than +/- 1.4 percentage points.
